You know why it feels like A LOT? The whole beautiful-tragic mess of this wild and precious life we’re all fumbling our way through? Because it is. It IS a lot. ⁣

⁣Never before have we had so many opportunities to create change and make a difference. Never before have we had so much information to sort or so many decisions to make. Never before have our nervous systems been this overloaded, or our bodies so out of touch with the natural cycles meant to guide and calm us. Never before have we been exposed to needs and struggles beyond our local communities. Never before have we been subjected to the wounds of the entire world. ⁣

We are navigating completely new terrain, and we’re doing so with very little guidance, mentorship, or empathy from our elders. ⁣

This reality requires something of us that I’m beginning to see as utterly essential to our ability to stay sane, to stay strong and to feel whole toward our collective healing and awakening: ⁣

We must hold our experience lightly. Like backpackers on a months-long pilgrimage, we must remove our packs regularly, assess the usefulness and necessity of every weighty item we once decided we needed, and distribute what we absolutely must carry in the wisest possible way. ⁣

The load of other people’s opinions? ⁣

The backbreaking burden of savior mentality? ⁣

⁣The weight of shame and self-abandonment? ⁣

⁣We really can choose to set them down. ⁣

⁣What if, instead of doing the WORK of healing, we decided to play our way to transformation? What if, instead of seeing the world as super f*cked up, we saw it as a giant, beautiful mess of an experiment? What if we could learn to laugh at our own folly and hold our greatest discomfort with childlike reverence and wonder? ⁣

⁣Aldous Huxley said it simply, and sweetly:⁣

⁣“Lightly, child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. Lightly, lightly–it’s the best advice ever given to me.” ⁣

⁣The story that we have to hold ALL the things, ALL the time, ALL BY OURSELVES is a heavy, toxic lie that keeps us burdened, separate, and spending. ⁣

In lightness,